Comparatives and Superlatives

Read the introduction to the new Harry Potter movie and notice the words in bold

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film about the boy wizard's adventures, is out in the US on Friday. More expensive to make than the previous two films put together, it is expected to break box office records in what many perceive as the best Harry Potter film so far.

It sees Harry, who is now more handsome than ever before, battle against the evils of Sirius Black, who allegedly betrayed the boy wizard's parents to their murderer, Lord Voldemort.

In order to protect Harry and the other students from Black, Professor Dumbledore stations wraithlike guards called Dementors throughout Hogwarts. More vicious than vampires, these creatures suck the souls of their victims. Unfortunately, they are just as likely to annihilate the good as the bad.

These Dementors summon for Harry the scariest and most tormenting memories of his parents yet.

Based on the book many commentators feel is cleverer than its predecessors, initial reactions to the movie are positive. While is it true that humorous moments are rarer than in the first two movies, the film, directed by Mexican film maker Alfonso Cuaron, is said to be the darkest and most frightening yet.

Challenge 1 Mini-Lesson Challenge 2 Mini-Lesson Rating Form

Using the words above in bold as reference, match the rules for forming comparatives and superlatives by clicking and dragging the boxes below into the correct spaces.

Further features of comparatives and Superlatives You can:

Use adverbs of degree (a bit, a little, much, rather, slightly) in front of comparative adjectives

I thought the Philosopher’s Stone was slightly better than the Chamber of Secrets

Use adverbs of degree (by far, much, easily) in front of The and superlative adjectives.

This winter is by far the coldest I have experienced in Hong Kong

*by far can also be used at the end of the sentence

Use As… As or Not as…as to compare things and modify the intensity using adverbs such as (not) nearly, quite, almost

Daniel Craig is not nearly as handsome as Justin Beiber

Use The….The with comparative adjectives to express that things change in relationship to each other.

The more crowded Hong Kong gets, the less pleasant it becomes.

Below, in jumbled order, are some more viewer responses about the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban. Click and drag the elements of the sentences below into the correct grammatical order to reveal the comments. In some cases, the punctuation clues will help you.

More Examples
See more examples here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3763947.stm

It was much more grown up

This movie will be the most difficult

This movie is less cute and warm

It didn’t feel as ditzy as the other two

The changes in location were much better

Best Harry Potter film ever

This is the best of the books

The scenes with Draco were not as hostile as I remembered

Not better of worse than the preceeding two films, just different

I have always found the books to be more richly detailed than the movies

This was a much better movie. Better acting. Better scenery

I didn’t think the film was as good as the first two

This book is darker than the first two

Some of the special effects were louder, bigger, faster than the other two films

Even though the books are better, this is the best of the Potter films by far!

This is by far the best movie of the three.

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